Bullhead City is a vibrant and outdoor orientated community, currently undergoing an exciting period of rapid development. Built on the banks of the Colorado River in the Mohave Desert region of Arizona, Bullhead City gives its residents the best of desert and river—gorgeous year round sun shine, hot summers and warm winters, and plenty of cold, clean water to cool off in.
Bullhead City locals (and there are about 34,000 of them) enjoy their water sports, getting out on the river to swim, boat, kayak, water ski and fish year round. Many of the city’s lovely parks are on the waterside, Local lakes and state and national parks preserve the unspoiled beauty of the surrounding desert and mountains and are only a short car trip away.
Right near the spot where Arizona, Nevada and California meet, Bullhead City has become the economic and retail hub for the Tri-State area. The economy is thriving, resting on a firm base of retail, light industry, farming and most of all, tourism. Hundreds of square miles of land have recently been opened up for residential, commercial and recreational development, bringing a building boom to the city.
Nearby Laughlin, Nevada, has some of the country’s top gaming resorts and water resorts that have sprung up along the Colorado River. As well as providing ample employment to Bullhead City locals, these facilities bring entertainment and water fun close to home.
Location
Bullhead City is in Mohave County in northwestern Arizona, near the state borders of Nevada and California.
The Nevada resort town of Laughlin is directly across the Colorado River by bridge from Bullhead City. About 5 miles away, Laughlin employs many local residents in its hotels and casinos.
Las Vegas, Nevada, is about 80 miles northwest of Bullhead City and Kingman, Arizona is about 32 miles east. Phoenix is roughly 240 miles south.
Geography
Built in the desert of northwestern Arizona along the banks of the crystal clear Colorado River, Bullhead City is a recreational paradise. With year round sunshine and a hot, dry climate, local residents are well placed to make optimum use of the cooling waters of the river, which is perfect for water sports like boating, water skiing, and sports fishing. Desert sports are also popular in the area.
The warmer waters of nearby Lake Mohave only add to the options and there are several large wilderness areas around Bullhead City, including the stunning Lake Mead National Recreation Area, which is about 2.5 miles north and contains Lake Mead and Lake Mohave at the Davis Dam (both reservoirs along the Colorado River). The Mohave National Preserve, about 20 miles east of Bullhead City, is another fantastic wilderness. The desert is close at hand and you don’t have to walk too far out of town to enjoy its beauties, including flowering cacti in season.
While Bullhead City is largely flat along the river valley, some parts further east of the river are built on a ridge of rolling hills; these climb to the Black Mountains.
Jobs
Bullhead City has a thriving local economy, mostly based on tourism, hydroelectric and metals industries, and more recently, construction.
With over 5 million holidaymakers visiting Bullhead City each year, and many more coming to neighboring Laughlin, it is not surprising that the local hospitality industry is flourishing. Bullhead City is a primary retail hub for the wider Tri-State area and the first place tourists and locals alike visit to do their shopping. Home Depot is one of the city’s largest employers.
Laughlin is a huge gaming town and the major casinos like Hurrahs, Don Laughlin’s Riverside Resort, and The Flamingo are also the primary employers. Most resort employees live in Bullhead City.
Large land tracts have recently been opened up for commercial, residential, and recreational development on the northern end of Bullhead City and new golfing communities are being built around Laughlin; this building boom also employs large numbers of local residents.
Bullhead City’s Economic Development Authority provides supportive resources to existing and relocating local businesses and provides liaison with the local business community and Chamber of Commerce.
Housing
Bullhead City is currently undergoing a period of rapid development, thanks to its thriving local economy, wide availability of land, and affordable housing prices. Construction is booming, with about 300 new homes being built per year and about 70 manufactured units. Hundreds of acres of land are being offered for new development by Bullhead City’s Bureau of Reclamation and two new golf course communities are in the pipeline. There are several good building companies to choose from if you want to plan your own home.
The oldest sections of Bullhead City (downtown and the Riviera neighborhoods) have some lovely, mostly nineteen-forties and fifties, homes, and these tend to be moderately priced. The newer sections of town were mostly built during and since the nineteen-eighties; interested buyers may choose from condos, apartments, townhouses, and a wide range of single family homes, manufactured homes and there are some mobile home parks in town as well.
Much of the recent growth in Bullhead City has been near the Parkway, which has homes ranging in price from about $130,000 to $600,000. Upscale riverfront homes tend to be multi-level in style and may sell for up to $1,500,000. Some of the new homes on the river are exceptionally beautiful, and come with their own private docks. Active 55 plus communities are also on the rise in Bullhead City; these have attractive single family homes, beautiful landscaping, and ample community amenities. Prices for retirement properties range from about $130,000 to $340,000.
Recreation
With its year round sunshine, clean cold Colorado River, and majestic national parks, it is not hard to see why Bullhead City is so widely regarded as a recreational paradise, and so popular with tourists and locals alike.
Community parks and ball fields are ample in Bullhead City, there is a skate park at Rotary park. Ken Fovargue Park has a great swimming pool and there are plenty of beaches along the river bank, complete with shade trees and ramadas. There are miles of walking paths along the river and plenty of boat ramps allowing easy access for boaters. A BMX park is in the works. Community recreational events are well planned and there are a wide range of children’s sports teams, including Pop Warner Football, Little League, and soccer.
Golf is a popular pastime in this part of the country and there are several superb courses in the wider Bullhead City area. Riverview Golf Club has a challenging executive 9-hole course with a par of 3, and the Mojave Resort Golf Club has a landmark 18-hole championship level course with a par of 72. Chaparral is a 9-hole par 3 and 4 executive course in the center of town. The Laughlin Ranch Golf Course is another 18-hole, par 72 championship course in Bullhead City; the Clubhouse has a great sports bar and grill, and a full-service day spa.
The Colorado River is the perfect place to water ski, swim, or go kayaking, boating and fishing year round and a number of companies run enjoyable river boat tours out of Bullhead City and Laughlin. A paddle boat steamer offers a fun dinner cruise. There is also a lively scuba diving scene in Bullhead City, with the Water World Scuba Diving Center offering gear and classes.
Big Bend State Park is a short distance from Bullhead City at a bend in the Colorado River and there are two massive national parks nearby --- the Lake Mead National Recreation Area and the Mohave National Preserve. Just two and a half miles north of Bullhead City, the Lake Mead National Recreation Area includes Lake Mohave/Davis Dam and, further north, Lake Mead, both fantastic water sport and sightseeing areas. Grapevine Canyon, near Davis Dam, has a good museum, good hiking trails, and an ancient Indian petroglyph site. The national park has hundreds of miles of scenic hiking trails and well appointed campsites. Three of America's four desert ecosystems--the Mojave, the Great Basin, and the Sonoran Deserts--meet in the park, so visitors have the pleasure of getting up close to a wide range of indigenous flora and fauna.
The Mohave National Preserve just west of Needles has fantastic geological formations, including the Cima Dome, the Cinder Cones, and the Kelso Dunes and visitors may see indigenous desert tortoises and Bighorn sheep. Campgrounds are available and hiking trails are excellent.
The Black Mountain Range just east of Bullhead City is a great place to go hiking and rock climbing and there are several ghost towns to explore. Bighorn sheep, mule deer, quail, and dove attract hunters.
Special Attractions/Events
As an amenity rich city smack in the middle of the stunning Colorado River Valley, Bullhead City has much to recommend it. A premier holiday destination, Bullhead City has great hotels, superb dining, and world-class shopping, and Laughlin’s casinos, nightclubs and entertainment are just five miles away across the river.
Historic Oatman is just up the road; this authentic old western town is a fun place to visit, with burros roaming the streets and gunfights staged on weekends. Slightly further afield, Kingman on the old U.S. Route 66 has a fantastic Route 66 Museum
The cold clear waters of the Colorado River present the perfect partner to Bullhead City’s abundance of sunshine, and the warmer waters of Lake Mohave are a short car drive away. Both spots are ideal for boating, water skiing, sport fishing, and swimming, and pretty beaches are plentiful. Several companies offer boat trips up and down river.
From rodeos to bluegrass festivals, community barbeques and chili cook-offs to demolition derbies and the annual Harley run, there’s always something on in Bullhead City—and even a quick glance at the yearly schedule of community events gives a real sense of the fantastic character of this region.
Interesting Facts/Historic Buildings and Places
Originally home to the Mojave Indians, the Bullhead City region was first seen by outsiders in 1540 when the Spanish explorer Melchlor Diaz passed through with his party. Europeans were not to return until 1776, when Father Garces crossed the Colorado River here nearly a month before the Declaration of Independence was signed. The Indians remained undisturbed until the mid eighteen-hundreds, when steamboats began to make regular trips upriver from Port Isabel in the Gulf of California.
Once gold and silver was discovered along the river and at what was to become Bullhead City, prospectors began arriving in droves. Bullhead City was first called Hardyville, for its founder William Harrison Hardy who settled here in the eighteen-sixties. Hardyville was quick to become a thriving river port, where miners came to for supplies and entertainment. Largely demolished by fire in 1872, Hardyville became a ghost town at the turn of the century when the mines were finished and the new train line passed it by. When gold was discovered at Katherine, (in what is now the Lake Mead National Recreation Area), the few remaining hopefuls left Hardyville behind. All that remains of this early settlement is the Hardyville Pioneer Cemetery in Bullhead City and the items in the local Colorado River Museum.
Things didn’t change until 1942, when construction began on the Davis Dam, just north of Bullhead City. As the Colorado waters rose, they began to cover Bullhead Rock, an early navigational point along the river, and the settlement that was built near there for the dam workers was named after it. Bullhead City still has some of these first homes, built in the nineteen-forties and fifties.
Growth really started to take off for this small community in the nineteen-sixties and again in the nineteen-eighties, when Laughlin (across the river in Nevada) began to enjoy a great deal of economic success as a holiday resort. Don Laughlin was the first to open a resort, the Riverside, in 1966. The Riverside is still going strong today. Many casino and hotel employees came to settle in Bullhead City, which was incorporated on Aug. 28, 1984. Bullhead City was quick to capitalize on the success of its neighbor and today is an exciting holiday destination in its own right.
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